Books › Chosen Prey
Chosen Prey
First published 2001 · 477 pages
A dread-soaked, misty procedural that pits a relentless investigator against a ferociously intelligent predator.
What it feels like
Steeped in the mist and rain of a Minnesota spring, this dark procedural delivers a chilling, dread-soaked reading experience. The narrative pulls you into a grim web of deceit, balancing the methodical, gritty work of homicide investigation with the terrifying escalation of a predator's single-minded hunger. As grisly discoveries mount on misty, oak-covered hillsides, the atmosphere grows increasingly claustrophobic and urgent. The prose grounds the horrific reality of serial murder in a vivid, rain-washed landscape, creating a stark backdrop for the clash between a relentless investigator and a killer driven by ferocious intelligence and madness. It is a propulsive, suspenseful journey designed for readers who devour tense, atmospheric thrillers where the stakes are deadly and the hunt is everything.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- misty
- chilling
- grim
- Tone
- gritty
- urgent
- dark
- suspenseful
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the hunt for a predator · hidden madness · obsessive violence · unraveling deceit
- The writing
- Procedural and atmospheric, grounding grisly discoveries in the misty, rain-soaked chill of the Minnesota landscape.
- The arc
- Begins with a chilling, atmospheric discovery and accelerates into a tense, escalating race against a ferociously intelligent madness.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave dark, atmospheric police procedurals featuring relentless investigators and cunning, obsessive killers.
Content notes
- serial murder
- strangulation
- pornographic imagery
- grisly violence
About the book
A shallow grave and a pornographic drawing draw Lucas Davenport into a deadly quest for a predator with a single-minded hunger for his chosen prey. In the mist and rain of a Minnesota spring, a shallow grave is found. It contains the body of a young woman, apparently strangled. When the murder is connected with a brilliantly-executed erotic drawing, where the victim's face has been grafted onto a pornographic internet image, Lucas Davenport becomes involved. More of the drawings come to light and Davenport, with the help of a local sheriff's deputy, makes a grisly discovery. The drawings may represent more murder victims, strangled with a starter rope from an antique outboard motor. As Lucas investigates further, he uncovers a web of deceit, related to a series of young women involved in the arts. All of them had some connection to the local university, and all of them had a new boyfriend who remained unseen by their friends. There the trail seems to end until further investigation of the grave site results in an horrific discovery. On the misty, oak-covered hillside south of Minneapolis, the case begins to come together in Lucas' mind, but the mixture of ferocious intelligence and madness which he faces means that the deaths must continue, that the chosen prey must be stalked...
Description from Open Library.
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